Saudi Arabian pageant spotlights sheeping beauties

People look at a sheep during the sheep beauty pageant Thursday in Banban, Saudi Arabia, north of the capital, Riyadh. The contest mixed business and entertainment; poets sang the animals' praise in verse as the male-only audience checked out the competitors for beauty features, such as the span of their cheeks, the length of their neck and the color of the hair covering their bodies.

Banban, Saudi Arabia  The contestants scampered down the runway, bleating at their admirers. Poets sang their praises in verse as the male-only audience appraised the competitors' physical beauty, right down to the length of their necks.

But instead of receiving roses and a tiara, it was off to the highest bidder for many finalists in the first Saudi beauty pageant featuring locally bred sheep.

The contest, a far cry from female beauty pageants held in some Arab countries like Lebanon, offered an opportunity for breeders to do business and a rare outlet for entertainment in a country where the few recreational activities that exist are conducted under the strict glare of the religious police.

The goal of Thursday's competition was to encourage Saudis to breed for quality. Some of those who attended the event said Saudi sheep - known as Nejdi sheep - have markedly improved over the past decade because of the attention given to breeding them.

"The Nejdi sheep of today are much more beautiful than those of 10 years ago," said Salem al-Ghannami, a 37-year-old Emirati at the event.

In the past few years, beauty pageants involving camels and goats - which, together with sheep, symbolize Bedouin lifestyle - have been held across the kingdom. But senior members of the royal family have reportedly been upset because the contests turned into rancorous competitions between tribes over who has the most beautiful breed. To avoid such conflicts the sheep pageant did not list the tribes who owned the animals.

On Thursday evening, some 4,000 men assembled on a lit-up stretch of desert just north of Riyadh covered with hundreds of carpets. The event was off-limits to women in keeping with strict Saudi rules that ban the sexes from mixing in public.

The men sat in armchairs around a tiny runway covered with red carpeting. The stench of dung filled the cool desert air as rams and ewes were put on display following a fireworks show and a competition for the best poem in praise of sheep.